Ethan's 12g Vagabond Tank

ScubaEthan

Posted 23 January 2012 - 06:27 PM

ScubaEthan

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Fayetteville, GA

7-29-12

7-9-12

5-23-12Blasted LEDs and camera phone.

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2-12-12Cluttered, I know.

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11-9-11

Hello everyone, I am setting my tank back up after a couple year hiatus. But I am still a complete noob. I put water in the tank back in October but have been taking it real slow.Here's some photos. Sorry for the bad cellphone quality. I used to be a photographer until ALL my equipment was stolen out of my car But I'd rather spend my money on my tank than a new camera

I tore out all the hood guts and put in a Panorama Pro LED strip with white/blue. I'm working on keeping the parameters stable and changing two gallons of water once a week. I'm getting an ATO tomorrow. I plan to get a maxi-jet 900 and maybe a koralia nano 240. I want to buy or build a media basket for a chamber to use filter floss/pad, chaeto, and chemipure elite. Any other mod/upgrade suggestions?

Bozo (smaller orange) and Bailey (bigger and darker) were named by my girlfriend. I got them on January 8th from a local breeder and they were 7 months. They scared me a couple times with their antics. Like the time I thought Bozo was having a seizure. Thankfully they were just getting lovey dovey.

ScubaEthan

Posted 24 January 2012 - 11:25 AM

ScubaEthan

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She did! The breeder calls her color mocha but apparently no one knows how dark they'll get in adulthood. Most, when born "mocha," turn jet black while some stay mocha colored. Or so I think. I'm learning lots about clownfish. I believe the other will stay orange. Most in their batch (what do you call a bunch of baby clowns??) Were fully orange.

Why did the black/white and orange pair not work for you? They seem to be doing dominate/submissive behaviors a lot. I assume that means they are pairing up well. Nothing too dominantly aggressive yet.

I have a major weakness to ricordeas too.

Do you think 2 gallons once a week is good or should I do them multiple times a week? Is it better to do it as often as I can or stick to a schedule?

ScubaEthan

Posted 24 January 2012 - 11:33 AM

ScubaEthan

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Oh and I plan to get the maxi-jet 900 to replace the stock internal pump and use that with my ATO I'm getting tonight. Plus a Koralia nano for more intermittent flow. I'm trying to follow what I've seen others do. Does that sound right?

I saw my porcelain crab for the first time in a couple weeks last night. So glad it's still alive! Too skiddish for a photo though.

Full tank shot pre-livestock. Not a great photo but I think I have some nice ledges for coral and kind of a cove in the middle. I spent hours to get this cause I have some large pieces. Unfortunately, these were some of the smallest my LFS had. Lots of life came with them though. I think it's pretty good quality.

I've since taken out the magfloat with algae pad. I need to get a piece of felt or something to put between the magfloat as its scratching the acrylic even though it was made for acrylic.

hawkgonereefin

Posted 24 January 2012 - 12:03 PM

wankreas

Posted 24 January 2012 - 12:04 PM

wankreas

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Yay another NC12! <3
I'm enjoying reading about your tank! I upgraded the lighting in mine using the Ecoxotic panorama modules last year and am loving them. I have one blue/white, one solid actinic and one magenta stunner strip.
I have been pretty lazy when it comes to changing out the last of the stock items- I have kept the sponges (I rinse them out twice a week) and run some chemipure elite in the second chamber. I upgraded the stock pump and have a hydor rotating deflector for some additional water movement. I was going to add a small koralia but I am worried that it will be too large. It might work well for you since your rockwork is a little more open than mine :)

gena

Posted 24 January 2012 - 01:01 PM

Do you think 2 gallons once a week is good or should I do them multiple times a week? Is it better to do it as often as I can or stick to a schedule?

Thanks!

I waited too long to add the orange clown. My b/w wanted no part of a new clown "friend" in the tank. He tried to kill it. After that it was a rescue mission on my part. I was so bummed too, because the little orange guy was the cutest clown I'd ever seen

I think 2 gallons would be fine. I'm a little over board, but I'm trying to get rid of algae, so I'm doing 2.5 gallons twice a week. I think typical is 10-25% weekly. I tend to lean toward the higher percentage in my changes.

Sticking to a schedule is best. You don't want to do too many changes as that can stress the inhabitants. If you aren't having nutrient issues, you're fine with once a week.

ScubaEthan

Posted 24 January 2012 - 05:31 PM

Tank and Clowns are looking great! And how can you not love ricordeas......just saying

Thanks! Exxxactly. They are the best coral porn.

Yay another NC12! <3I'm enjoying reading about your tank! I upgraded the lighting in mine using the Ecoxotic panorama modules last year and am loving them. I have one blue/white, one solid actinic and one magenta stunner strip. I have been pretty lazy when it comes to changing out the last of the stock items- I have kept the sponges (I rinse them out twice a week) and run some chemipure elite in the second chamber. I upgraded the stock pump and have a hydor rotating deflector for some additional water movement. I was going to add a small koralia but I am worried that it will be too large. It might work well for you since your rockwork is a little more open than mine

Thanks! 12 is the best. I just have one blue/white model but want to add a blue for dawn/dusk... and to not freak the fish out. Do you have 3 or 4 chambers in the back? I have 4 but all the photos I see of other all-in-one cubes only have 3 so I'm confused. I'm also worried the second powerhead will be too much but other people do it... so it must be fine.

FTS looks awesome! Love the rockscape a lot!!!!!

Thanks! Like they say, everyone hates their own, right? Sucks about your clowns! What a bully

ScubaEthan

Posted 24 January 2012 - 06:06 PM

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Thanks for the link. It's still so hard to tell though. One thing that throws me off is the arm you see in the photo is skinny while the other arm is ginormous and thick. I done some searches but can't figure out if that is a thing with certain species, a male/female thing, or what.

I got new toys! A huge thing of eggcrate to make a filter media basket and frag rack. Light for future chaeto in the back and a use JBJ ATO from a local reefer. Now I just gotta figure out how to use the darn thing. I found the manual online. Can't be that hard, right?

ScubaEthan

Posted 25 January 2012 - 09:01 AM

ScubaEthan

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Pretty rics!!!!!

That crab is freaky looking Does he just have one long arm or are both like that?

No, the other arm is three times that size. It is cool looking. I just don't know what to do with it! Maybe he won't cause any problems long enough until I set up the bigger tank and sump I have in storage.... Then he can live in the sump

ssgtgonzo

Posted 26 January 2012 - 05:03 AM

ssgtgonzo

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She did! The breeder calls her color mocha but apparently no one knows how dark they'll get in adulthood. Most, when born "mocha," turn jet black while some stay mocha colored. Or so I think. I'm learning lots about clownfish. I believe the other will stay orange. Most in their batch (what do you call a bunch of baby clowns??) Were fully orange.

Why did the black/white and orange pair not work for you? They seem to be doing dominate/submissive behaviors a lot. I assume that means they are pairing up well. Nothing too dominantly aggressive yet.

I have a major weakness to ricordeas too.

Do you think 2 gallons once a week is good or should I do them multiple times a week? Is it better to do it as often as I can or stick to a schedule?

Thanks!

2 gallons a week is good, but if you could do 1 gallon every other day, that would be even better. That way you are changing more than 10% constantly, keeping the good nutrients in your tank at a stable level. When you extend it out, the balance of nutrients swing up and down which can cause stress.

That's one of the reasons I started building nanos, easier to change 1 gallon every other day than 20 gallons once a week in my 125!

ssgtgonzo

Posted 26 January 2012 - 05:09 AM

ssgtgonzo

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Orange bam bam zoas. See how that one is brown? It used to be super bright orange like it's neighbor. Any ideas?

Wouldn't worry about it, sometimes they jettison zooanthellae which makes them bleached, and sometimes the algae reproduces too quickly which turns them brown. They will find a good balance and the color will return, at least mine did! I have some AOGs that looked half pink and half brown (in the same polyp) for a while until the balance was found and they all turned metallic pink again.

ScubaEthan

Posted 26 January 2012 - 05:53 AM

ScubaEthan

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Wouldn't worry about it, sometimes they jettison zooanthellae which makes them bleached, and sometimes the algae reproduces too quickly which turns them brown. They will find a good balance and the color will return, at least mine did! I have some AOGs that looked half pink and half brown (in the same polyp) for a while until the balance was found and they all turned metallic pink again.

Cool. Good to know.

Thanks for the advice on water changing. How long can I keep mixed saltwater in the bucket? Can I make new saltwater once a week and use it throughout the week? I'm still perfecting my saltwater mixing. I made some Tuesday to change the water last night but the salinity was too low. I added more so hopefully it will be good tonight.

ScubaEthan

Posted 27 January 2012 - 08:38 AM

ScubaEthan

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Yay for local reefers tearing down their tanks and giving away the leftovers for free!

I got some monti, gsp, pom pom xenia, something unknown, and blue cloves. I'm wondering if I even want the blue cloves. I know they spread fast. I want the completely covered look but do I want them to take over before other corals grow? Does anyone have experience with it?

As soon as some of the pieces went in, Pierre went to work. He even jumped on my hand and was swimming at the surface to steal mysis from the clowns I just put stuff on the bottom to acclimate to the lights then I'll move it to the proper place.

The unknown. Looks like xenia hands inside tubes. ID please?

Oldie but goodie. I think the pinstriped palys are my favs so far. The are metallic green in person.

ScubaEthan

Posted 28 January 2012 - 12:29 PM

Your "xenia" looks just like my cloves when they are closed up. I'm pretty certain they are a clove polyp. Nice free stuff. That monti is pretty big too! Looks like a green one

Cloves... xenia... what's the difference? They are all pretty similar, right?

This is my first sps (yay!) but I know I've committed a reefing sin by getting livestock without knowing how to take care of them. But the guy just threw all that stuff in the bag! I only went for a piece of LR rubble with blue cloves on it

So by green, do you mean the small polyps on it will be green when they open? I'm out of town for the weekend (it's my birthday! ). I can't wait to see then on Monday!

gena

Posted 28 January 2012 - 05:46 PM

I have some marine snow and plan to put half a capfull in the tank once a week. Sound like a good idea?

Does SPS get much from the marine snow or are they mostly photosynthetic?

Should I get a bottle of trace elements + calcium or will 2g water changes every week be enough to keep those trace elements up?

Thanks for all the advice reefer friends

Xenia and cloves are very similar but the xenia will pulse. Both are moody corals

See the directions on the marine snow and do about half what they suggest. Slowly build up. I've never used that product so not sure on how it performs. I do know that SPS will benefit from dosing things like that, in addition to good lighting.

A lot of people have luck with just doing weekly water changes with their sps tanks. Do you have test kits for Ca, mg, etc? You can see how much your corals utilize to determine if you will need to dose.